Japan's population has been increasing steadily since 1945, but the most pessimistic government estimates indicate that it will decline after peaking at 127 million in 2004. By 2025, the nation's population is expected to shrink by roughly 10 million.
By this time, coupled with the decrease in the number of children, the number of people aged 65 and over will grow by 13 million and make up about 28 percent of the total population. Similar estimates for other industrialized countries for the same time period are 19 percent for the United States, 21 percent for Britain, 22 percent for France, and 23 percent for Germany.
As this indicates, Japan is the industrialized country that will first and foremost experience a rapidly aging society.